Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-09-26
NEED OF PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
FATHERS. Examine the Studies Pursued
hx Nnnr Snns-Nental Exercise.

EatheTs. Examine the Studies Pursued
by Your Son~-Nental Exercise.
/ have been assured by learned pro-
fessors that the collegiate course is merely
| an exercise, useful in forming and strength
ening the mind. Therefore, useless studies
become useful as dumb bells. stiffening
the mental muscles and impartinG tone to
the intelligence Would not useful studies
and the acquiring of facts needed in the
daily grind to come he equally healthful
10 the mind,
The most our graduates acquire is
barely n smattering of each subject.
Why Merely because there is not time
to give each branch of study conscientious
and exhaustive research. 1t may be
asked why, then, the number OF studies
is not limited. The answer is simple
Between the vanity Of the parents, who
like Ia say that their sons are deep in this
ahstruse subject or that high sounding
science. and the stubborn conservatism Of
the faculty, retaining Eighteenth century
sentiment in this Nineteenth century OF
practical life, the course is filed with
tares and there is no room for the wheat.
OF what use are Latin and Greek to the
youth who must soon strip in the strug-
Glt ne DdIesl cAtuSS 10
they give an insight into the derivation of
language. Well' A dictionary will do
as mitch. Why waste four years in ham
meriry verbs and Eouns, declens!ons and
conju cations into boy who is destined
afterward 10 sell coffee or soap: or what
valuable use is French 1t will take sew
eral years TO learn, and the requirement
is purely ornamental, and 10 most cases
not worth dollar to the future man.
Fathers, examine the studies pursued
by your sons. You will find that you are
spending your money aud wasting their
most precious time storing up glittering
tinsel TO the exclusion of what can benefit
them in the sterner days TO come. Cast
them adrift upon the sea Of life without a
thorough education in some practical sub
ject of value 10 the world, and which in
needy hour they may coin into bread, and
you are casting them adrift in ships Of
lead without life preserver or spar
aboard. 4 sunken rock or q storm and
they are lost.
II they need mental exercise let them
tuggle with practical ubjects-mechan-
les, bookkeeping, drawing, practical chem
istry. arithmetic, the English language
and physics Let them learn how to keep
dCCOi.Uls, now 10 Iiiilolt tupis. III" ~
build and work an engine, how TO detect
authorizations in staples Of commerce, how
to understand the machinery of the great
pract zeal world-and not learn the vaga-
ries OF the land of dreams.
II you have learned the bent Of your
sons mind, confine him strictly to studies
pertaining to his calling and cast all
others away.
Our boys are not fools They know the
uselessness of half the labors imposed
upon them. and, being Americans, resent
the encroaching upon their liberty.
Rather than Latin o. Greek, they take up
the fantasticoes of the poker deck, they
twankle a banjo, and are erudite only in
the latest laws appertaining to trousers
or collar. We neglect TO give them
weapons 10 fight the battle, and they be-
come skulkers in the rear We turn
them loose upon the world with no means
for employment; they reply by becoming
idle and protligate, prematurely wasted,
the soul Of Saturn in the body of Adonis,
crowded from the race for fortune and
fame by striplings Of humber life, whose
education ran in narrow lines, but was
sturdy and sharp as an ak to hew their
path.-Henry Guy Carleton in New York